Places, Everyone
by hanazaki462anime
Summary: When the Guardians all witness Jack Frost's death, they all think it's the end. What they don't know is that this is far from the end; and with Jack himself thinking that they're the enemy, what are they supposed to do to convince him that they're not the bad guys? No pairings. Rated T for safety. NEW SUMMARY WRITTEN 7/15/2013.
1. Overdue

**Places, Everyone**

**Summary: ****"Everyone should know their places. Especially you, Jack. Yours is down at rock bottom. You are no longer any use to the Guardians. After all, the imminent danger is over. And when you die, all alone and unnoticed, no one will mourn for you. Now, places, everyone..." "JACK!" No pairings. Rated T for violence. Is being continued.**  


******((EDIT: GUYS I'M CONTINUING THIS STORY, DON'T WORRY ABOUT WHAT THE A/N SAYS BELOW THIS, I REPEAT, I _WILL _CONTINUE THIS))**

**A/N: YAY I'M BACK GUYS *sends out kisses* mwah! Happy Valentines Day! :) Unfortunately, I can only write hurt/comfort and this will not be a lovey-dovey family story. In fact, it may make you guys spam me with threats to continue this story. Which I may not. So if you're looking for something fluffy, return to the archives and come back tomorrow.**

**LET THE STORY START!**

* * *

_"Hello, Jack, dear."  
_

Jack Frost stumbled through a dark hallway, running away from... from... **something**, and he skidded to a stop as cruel laughter filled the air. "Who are you? Show yourself!" he yelled, staff in position and twisting to catch sight of the owner of the voice.

_"Oh, how cute! The little frost boy will stop the big bad bully! But, I'm afraid that's not the case here, honey." _The female voice faded into echoes. Jack glared into the shadows, wary. "I wouldn't be so confident," he jabbed at the unseen woman. Flicking his eyes back from where he had come from, he yelled, "I need a little help here!"

_"Who were you calling to, child?"_ A pause. _"__Oh, can it be?_ _It can't!" _Jack looked around, panic flitting across his features for a single moment. "Guys!"

_"You can't possibly have been calling out to the **Guardians**, could you?"_

"Ding ding, we have a winner," Jack spat. "and a good thing too, because we're going to kick your butt in a minute." The woman's voice only giggled. "_How innocently deluded. They're not coming, darling." _The teen turned around at the sound of a cloak brushing against the floor. "Oh yeah? Who says? And they **are** coming." "_But do you really know that? For sure?"_

"North! Bunny! Tooth! Sandy!" he called, refraining from using Bunny's nickname in case Bunny thought this was a joke. Jack shot a bolt of ice at a rat scampering by, knocking the frozen statue aside as he started to run again. "I'm pretty sure!" he yelled into the shadows. _"Are you **positive**, child?"_

Jack made a left. "I'm as positive as I'll ever be," he said, pausing for a second and then rushing to the right. "_Oh, but that's not positive enough."_

_"They're gone."_

His heart skipped a beat and his blood ran cold. Colder than he usually was, colder than the worst of blizzards. "What have you done to them?!" he yelled, attacking blindly at every shadow and corner. _"Relax, dear. They're not **dead **or anything." _The voice of the woman paused._ "Which is kind of funny, now that you mention it." _She laughed, her voice floating down another hallway._  
_

"WHERE ARE THEY?!" he screamed as he rushed after the voice, his emotions setting off bursts of energy and slicking the floor with a layer of frost and ice. "_Didn't I just tell you to relax, honey? Fine, they're not hurt, if you must have it spelled out for you," _the voice replied lazily._  
_

Jack breathed out in relief, and sucked the breath back in almost instantly. "Then what...?" he trailed off.

"_They're gone, because they don't **care**."_

His mind drew a blank. "What?"

_"They abandoned you, darling. **They. Don't. Care."**_

"I... I..." Jack shook his head violently. "Th-they do!" he retorted, cursing himself for the frightened trembling in his voice. "They care, they will come...," he muttered repeatedly under his breath, a mantra to keep him sane. The voice hummed. _"Ah, they do? Well, they've certainly done a good job of showing it..."  
_

A dark cloak flashed out of the shadows and across Jack's face, making him stumble back. He whipped around, but she was gone. Only the voice of the woman was left, continuing maliciously,

_"...for **three hundred years**."_

Jack gasped and clutched at his heart, choking for breath. What was happening? "S-stop...," he croaked. The voice only laughed. "_Everyone should know their places. Especially you, Jack. Yours is down at rock bottom."_

Jack took three steps back in shock when a woman much taller than him stepped out of the dark right in front of him. _"You are no longer any use to the Guardians. After all, the imminent danger is over," _she drawled, the ends of her black cloak like liquid, hissing and spattering drops onto the wall, staining them. Jack was suddenly painfully aware of how much the hallway looked like abandoned hospital walls, the kind in the horror movies._  
_

_"And when you die, all alone and unnoticed, no one will mourn for you."_ The woman grinned._ "Now, places, everyone..."_

"NO! G-get away! I-" Jack's voice caught in his throat as he coughed. He wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his hoodie and gasped in horror at the dark spots of blood spattered on the blue fabric. He looked up at the woman, whose hood was threatening to fall off and yet did not. "Who are you?" he choked out. "Why are you doing this to me?"

The woman smiled. _"I am death, child. I take lives when their times are up." _She leaned forward and slid slender fingers around his throat. Jack's eyes widened, blue orbs trembling in fear. Death smiled and tightened her grip on his throat.

_"And you, Jackson Overland,"_ she whispered, _"are **long** overdue."_

And then everything

went

**d a r k.**

* * *

E. Aster Bunnymund slipped into a tunnel and quickly jumped out of another, bashing the head of a nightmare seconds before it pounced on North. "There's too many of 'em!" he yelled out to the others. Sandy's head could be seen above the sea of nightmares and fearlings he was currently fighting off, and Tooth was airborne, slicing through the creatures with her razor-sharp wings. "But Jack is-" Tooth protested, looking towards the cave entrance that was right in front of her yet so out of reach.

North knocked down a fearling with the hilt of his sword. "Jack is in there, yes, but ve must retreat! Ve cannot help him if ve-" He was interrupted by a sudden jolt in the creatures, both fearlings and nightmares alike looking up in alertness at the exact same time. With an unheard cry, they suddenly melted into pools of black sand and shadows and they flitted away and all of a sudden-

They were alone.

Bunny didn't put his boomerangs away. "Wha' the hell jus' happened?" he asked. Before anyone could say (or in Sandy's case, picture) anything, the Pooka's head snapped to the direction of the cave. "Somethin's comin'," he growled, bombs at the ready. Tooth fluttered down near the ground and Sandy and North polished their weapons.

But all thoughts of fighting was gone the moment Jack Frost stumbled out of the cave, clutching his left side.

"JACK!"

None of them were sure who had yelled out the winter spirit's name. Heck, none of them knew if it had come from themselves. It didn't matter, though, because they all rushed as Jack pitched forward. "Jack, Jack, oh sweet tooth, stay with us," Tooth whispered frantically as they laid Jack on the ground. Bunny grimaced at the sight of purple marks on his neck, while Sandy tried to plug up the bleeding laceration on his side. "Jack, how are you feeling?" North asked, struggling to keep the worry out of his voice. Not that it worked anyway.

Jack looked up at him and the Tooth Fairy, who were looking down at him over his head, and then down at Bunny and Sandy. He smiled through the pain clouding his eyes. "Heh... I kn-knew that you guys c-cared..." He coughed. He sucked a shuddering breath in and then lay still.

Sandy froze. North gasped. Bunny's eyes widened. Tooth dropped to the floor.

Jack

was gone.

* * *

**A/N: I... I'm sorry! It just popped into my head! I killed him off in the first chapter... I... Um... Might not continue... But if a lot of you want it to be continued, I will! I promise!**

**((EDIT: AGAIN, I'M CONTINUING THIS))**

**Happy Valentines!**


	2. Silence

**A/N: So because of you amazing people, I decided to continue this. Congrats to you! *gives out hugs***

**Enjoy~**

* * *

Bunny grasped Jack's wrist, checking for a pulse. Everyone held their breath.

There was silence.

Deafening silence.

Desperate silence.

Dare-I-hope silence.

Please-oh-please silence.

They gasped in horror when the pale, delicate hand dropped from the Pooka's grasp. Emerald green eyes opened and Aster looked at all of them, sorrow etched into his face. He shook his head.

The silence was gone.

Tooth screamed. "JACK!" she cried, shaking the teen's limp body. Sandy closed his eyes. North cradled Jack's limp form carefully, as if he was made of glass.

This spirit, this child that they had come to love as family, to think that he was gone...

It was impossible for any of them to comprehend.

North set down the boy in front of them all, as snow began to fall and surround them in a quiet blanket.

Silence fell again.

A grieving silence.

The silence was drowning them all, so overpowering, so body-numbing, that no one noticed when a dark tendril wrapped around Jack's ankles. No one noticed when Jack's shadow grew and darkened unnaturally so that it looked as if he was in a pool of dark ink.

Not Bunny, who had the most sensitive ears, because it made no sound.

Not Sandy, who was the wisest and oldest of them all, because it had never happened before.

Not Tooth, who was the fastest, because it happened so slowly.

Not North, who was the strongest, because no amount of strength could prevent it.

No one noticed.

And no one could react when Jack suddenly sunk into the ground, leaving only darkness behind.

They did try, of course they did. Tooth screeched and held onto his wrist, Bunny's eyes widened and he attacked the tendril dragging Jack down. North yelled and lunged down for him. Sandy conjured sand to light the space around him, so it might chase the darkness away.

They tried.

But in an explosion of black smoke, they were thrown back and Jack fell down into the dark abyss.

Everyone tried, _tried_, but there was nothing they could do.

* * *

His head hurt. His eyes hurt. His legs, arms, ears, heck, every part of him burned. A thought raced across his mind;

_What happened?_

He forced his eyes to open, but it didn't change anything, for all he saw was darkness. Was he alone? Was there anyone out there? He moved his arms, only to find them bound with something that felt like rough sandpaper. Was_ anyone _out there? Jack tried to move again. Jack. Was... Was that his name? That was all he could remember so far._  
_

There was silence.

Deafening silence.

Desperate silence.

Dare-I-hope silence.

Please-oh-please silence.

Suddenly, the darkness shifted and the dark sand that had apparently trapped him in a ball dispersed like a rapidly clearing fog, making a _hiss_ as it moved away. It dropped him on the floor, restraints slithering back to the shadowy corners of grey walls. Jack blinked his eyes, getting them used to the sudden light. Of course, the light was incredibly weak and such a small source, but his eyes had to get used to them anyway.

"Jack! You're awake!" The spirit whipped his head around for the source of the voice, and he smiled when a man emerged from the darkness, glad to see that someone was waiting for him, after all. "Hello!" he called, "Who are you?"

The silence was gone.

The man stepped out. "You don't remember me, Jack?" he asked, and Jack thought he could hear a mocking tone in his voice but he ignored it because the man had a face of sympathy. "Um, no. Sorry," he admitted, scratching the back of his head. "Why, Jack, I'm your caretaker." The man smiled gently, golden eyes glinting with kindness (but kindness wasn't supposed to _glint_, was it? Oh, he was probably being silly again).

"I'm Pitch Black. The Boogeyman."

He didn't know what the man was expecting him to do, maybe recognize him or something, but he didn't. "I. Um. Still can't remember. Sorry!" Jack hastily added as the man's face saddened.

"I was your caretaker, Jack. I'm very sorry that you can't remember. We took you under our wing when you were young and lost and scared." Jack blinked. "Oh." Then he blinked. "Wait... _we_?"

"Pitch? Pitch, did I... did I just hear Jack?" Jack looked over as another figure, a woman, peeked out of the shadows, as if she was afraid of light. "Jack! Oh, Jack, you're okay!" the woman cried, tears of joy flowing down her face as she rushed over to hug him. Jack froze, and then hugged her back awkwardly. He threw a questioning glance towards the man named Pitch, who only nodded and smiled, mouthing _'your other caretaker'_ over to him. Jack tried to relax in her tight grip, blinking rapidly when long, straight strands of lavender hair blocked his view. When the woman backed away from him, he smiled crookedly. "Um... yeah. No worries... Mrs. Black."

He knew he had said the wrong thing when the woman frowned. "Mrs.?" she whispered to him. "I... Pitch and I aren't married, Jack. Surely... surely you know that..." She caressed his face, gasping at the marks on his neck and the bandages on his side, which even Jack himself hadn't noticed. "Jack. Wh-what... What happened?"

Mr. Black came up behind Jack, and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. "I'm afraid Jack can't remember," he stated gravely, and Jack felt guilt consume him when he saw tears falling from the woman's ruby eyes. "I..." Jack bit his lip. "I'm sorry. That I can't remember. Anything." The woman sniffed and wiped at her eyes with slender hands that were white as a clean sheet of paper. He looked healthy compared to her.

"It's... it's alright, honey," muttered the distraught woman. "I... I'm your other caretaker. I... I'm Elizabeth, honey. Elizabeth Black. Pitch's sister. Can you... can you remember that? My name?" The hope in her eyes dimmed when Jack hesitantly shook his head no. She seemed to be trying her best to regain her composure. "W-well, that... that's... unfortunate. I... I suppose I should be glad you're even alive... Thank goodness you're alive, Jack!" she exclaimed, sobbing into Mr. Black's shoulder.

"Um... I know this isn't exactly helping, but... what happened?" asked Jack.

The raven-haired man sighed. "The Guardians... they tried to kidnap you, Jack." Jack furrowed his brows. "Who?" Ms. Black sighed. "The Guardians... they're a bunch of people who are after us," she whispered the last part, looking around fearfully. "Why? Why would they do that, Ms. Black? Mr. Black?" he asked, confusion evident on his face. Mr. Black sighed. "Please, Jack. Pitch and Elly. You never used to use formalities with us." Jack nodded, filing that information away in his head. "Oh. Okay... Pitch," he finished awkwardly. Ms. Black-no wait, Elly-grimaced. "The Guardians don't like what we do. But... it's a natural part of the world," she said. She looked over to her brother. "Pitch strikes fear into others, to teach them bravery. I... I take away lives. But the Earth would overpopulate if no one died, and I try my best to take only those who are suffering."

"You controlled winter. You still do." Pitch's voice took over, and Jack looked at him curiously. Suddenly, a flash racked his brain.

_He was flying over a town named Burgess, snowing in places, watching children have a snowball fight. And then a bunny... The Easter Bunny? He had... he had been shoved into a sack, by two yetis... He remembered...!_

"Ah!" he exclaimed, clutching his head as it recovered from the memory. Hearing cries of worry, he assured his caretakers that he was okay. "It... It was a memory. I was... I was kidnapped... by the Easter Bunny... Bunnymund...?" he ended in a question, looking up at them. Elizabeth nodded. "Yes... that was an year ago, honey," she whispered. Pitch closed his eyes. "You had two broken ribs that time, Jack," he mumbled. Jack's eyes widened in shock. "What... what? But what I do is... just... bringing snow...?" he whimpered. Pitch nodded. "We know, we know, dear," Elly comforted him, crouching down so she could place two hands on his arms, looking up at him with kind eyes. "But the cold can also kill, and while you could control it, the Guardians didn't like that. We've tried to reason with them, but it never worked. Just yesterday, the day before today, when you... lost... your memories, they tricked you. They pretended to understand, but then... _this_... happened."

Jack was stunned. Pitch continued the story. "We tried our best to find you, Jack, we did. But by the time we did, they had done... something... and they trapped you with my own power; the darkness." Jack nodded, remembering the imprisonment that he had first came in contact with when he had woken up. "They... they burned all our memoirs, all our precious pictures... At first we didn't know why, but now..." Elly sighed. "I guess they hoped they could have kept you as... as their _pet_," she spat, "and never remember us." Her face softened as she said, "But we managed to get to you first." Elly ran her hand through his hair, sighing yet again. "You look so different." Jack blinked. "Huh?" He remembered having white hair and blue eyes in that flash of memory, so what... "How do I look different?" he asked. Pitch seemed to hesitate, then drew a mirror out of his cloak and handed it to the teen. Jack gasped at the reflection.

From beyond the mirror looked back a boy with pitch black hair and dark purple eyes.

"But... But I remember just a little... And I had white hair and blue eyes, and...," he trailed off in shock. Pitch sighed. "You were dying, Jack," he whispered, "and I had to support you with my powers. I'm afraid that had a few side effects."

Silence fell again.

A grieving silence.

The Boogeyman patted his shoulder. "Well, just... just rest for now, Jack. Your room is the second door to the left," Pitch said, pointing to a hallway that Jack swore wasn't there before, "Do you want me to walk you to your room?" Jack shook his head. "I... I'll find it," he said, and Elly smiled. "You'll know it's yours when you see it, Jack. Your favorite teddy bear is there." Jack smiled shakily, thanked her warmly and left.

He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but all thoughts were forgotten as he entered a snow-filled room with a black teddy bear sitting on the pillow. Jack threw the covers over himself and drifted off.

* * *

When the fearlings keeping watch over Jack reported that he was deep in sleep, Elizabeth stretched in a couch made of nightmare sand and her gentle demeanor gave way to an arrogant one. "Your sister, my foot," she snarled, her features rippling and melting into a completely different one. A cloak was upon her again, and the soft lavender hair was replaced by curly locks of hair that reached her knees. They were a color of red that wasn't naturally possible; blood red. Her eyes remained red and her skin was still pale, but the gentle and dull scarlet irises had disappeared, instead a sharp, accusing pair of crimson.

Pitch scoffed. "Oh, please. You don't know how many times I thought this one over," he drawled, a nightmare appearing out of nowhere and circling him. Elizabeth scowled. "I should have known your scatterbrained mind couldn't have come up with something better," she remarked, and Pitch had to bite his tongue to keep from retorting back. After all, the woman was much older than he. Speaking of...

"Elizabeth? Was that your first choice for your alias?" he taunted, smirking when the scowl on the woman's face deepened. "Shut it, Boogeyman. It was the first name I could think of," she snapped, then drew a pocket watch out of her cloak, peering at the face. She rose off the couch and put the hood over her head. "I need to go back to work," Not-Elizabeth said, putting her hand in front of her and tearing a huge gash in mid-air. Through the rip, Pitch could see a busy road in Italy. "My grim reapers can't do anything without me around," she chuckled, stepping into the tear. Pitch smiled. " 'I try my best to take only those who are suffering' ?" he mocked her words from a few minutes ago. Not-Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she groaned, passing through the gap in space. As she began to close the tear, Pitch grinned and threw a last-minute goodbye to the woman.

"I'll be seeing you soon, Death."

Death smiled.

"Of course."

And as the gap closed, Pitch thought he could hear a busy road in Rome, Italy, and the sound of the cars as they crashed in a large-scale accident, killing exactly 129 people.

Death was _such_ a nice person to be partners with.

* * *

**DUN DUN DUUUUUN!**

**It's confusing, right? Some of you will be like, "But I thought Jack was dead!" Well, the answer to that will be revealed... later...**

**God, I'm such a jerk, aren't I? *giggle***

**Well, I'll need around 30 reviews or so to continue, because I'm going away to Virginia this vacation, and I thought, "If I'm going to be missing from the online world for that long, I might as well give the readers of Places, Everyone a treat and not leave them boiling in hot water."**

**Now the time for Guest Review Replies!**

**SnowBellPrize: I did continue! See?  
**

**Guest: He did come back!  
**

**Guest: Well, here you go. Now you don't have to say "GAH! I can't take thiiiiiiis".**

**Guest: Nah, I decided to make it a story.**

**Luna Frost: Ehehe, thanks! I just pictured them "melting into pools of black sand", and that's what I wrote... And, YES! YES! I DID CONTINUE!**

**Lillix-lolita: Here ya go!  
**

**anonymous: AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! DON'T KILL ME! *hides from various weapons* I CONTINUED IT! HERE! DON'T KILL ME, FROST FANS!  
**

**sylvery: You sounded very official. And therefore I continued! And... well, you don't have to beg. Ehehe...  
**

**Guest: I let... Jack die... but he's back... right? Whether he's dead or not is your choice~ (until I continue this further, that is)**

**And that's it! See ya next time!**

**~Hana**


	3. Encounter

**A/N: So, I'm back, guys! Virginia was pretty nice; we got to see loooooooooooots of flowers!**

**Here's the next chapter; I kinda got stuck for a while in the middle, but then listening to all 27 songs in the RotG soundtrack did the trick and I was up and writing again!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The Guardians all stood in front of a plaque, holding hands. All the lights were on. Nobody wanted to see what had taken Jack away (the darkness, the darkness that swallowed _everything_). Tooth took a deep breath and placed her candle down, next to the others'. The lights flickered on the blue platform, the snowflake engraved in it sparkling and reflecting the lights. The words _Jack Frost_ shined up at them. As if Jack himself was telling them that hope was not lost, that there was still a chance, and that they should "cool down" and cheer up.

Nobody spoke.

Nobody cheered up.

* * *

Jack yawned and rolled over in his bed. Yesterday had been so hectic... He wanted nothing but to snuggle up and forget about everything (but he didn't know he already had).

"Wake up, darling." Jack hummed and curled in on himself. There was a sound of blankets shifting, and he felt an indent in the mattress next to him while a hand ran through his currently black hair. "Jack, honey, you have to wake up," laughed the voice of Elizabeth, and Jack batted at her hand playfully. "Five more minutes," he laughed groggily, but he sat up on his bed. Elly smiled, handing him a plate with a sandwich and a glass of water on it, as well as a small pill. "Thanks, Elly," Jack smiled, and then poked at the medicine. "Not that I'm accusing you or anything, but... what is this?" he asked, picking up the pill and looking through its translucent contents. He couldn't see much, but it looked like there was black _somethings_ floating around inside. "It's to make you feel better, dear," Elly patted his shoulder, "Come outside when you're finished." She left the room.

If Jack had looked up, he would have seen a flash of lavender hair turning red. But he hadn't looked up.

And Death had known he wouldn't.

The teen, now alone in his room (or so he thought, for there were numerous fearlings keeping watch on him from the dark walls and corners), bit down on the sandwich hungrily, finishing it in three bites. He picked up the glass of water and brought it to his parched lips, picking up the pill and swallowing it as an afterthought. If he wanted the bandages on his torso off faster, then he might as well accept any hospitality. His breakfast finished, Jack picked up the teddy bear that had fallen from his bed during his sleep and put it on the desk next to his bedside. He stared at it for a while, purple eyes staring into coal black plastic ones. "Why can't I remember anything?" he asked the stuffed animal.

When he went outside, Pitch was waiting for him. "Jack, your staff," he said, handing the conduit over to him. Jack grinned. "Thanks, Pitch," he smiled. Before he could fly off, however, he was stopped by Elly, who made him sit down. "Now," she lectured to him, like a mother teaching her son what to do on the first day of school, "remember to try and stay away from Australia and Asia, that's where the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy lives." Jack nodded. "And the North Pole is _off. Limits._ You don't want North catching you." Jack scratched his head. "North?" Pitch came up next to Elizabeth. "That's Santa. He might seem jolly and happy at first, but he's a swordsman. You don't want to run into him," he warned, and the teen swallowed thickly. Elly continued her speech. "The Sandman is quiet but he's got golden sand at his command, so don't be fooled," she said.

"Golden sand? But-" Jack looked to Pitch. "But isn't that yours? The sand thing, I mean." Pitch sighed. "The Sandman has been taking my nightmare sand and turning them golden to benefit him instead of me," he said, and Jack's mouth fell open in an 'o'. "He can do that?" A nod of the head was his answer. "Now remember, the Easter Bunny has weapons, and the Tooth Fairy's wings are extremely sharp. North's got two swords that he'll try and hide from you, and Sandy might try to put you to sleep and kidnap you again. Okay? Good," finished the lavender-haired woman, patting the winter spirit's shoulder. "Just be careful, and have fun."

Smiling, Jack said goodbye to his caretakers for the day, and flew off into the air, the warnings floated around his head. Soon enough, though, they were replaced by a more pressing thought.

He sighed.

_Why do I feel like there's something wrong?_

* * *

There it was again, that silence that drowned them all. All of them wanted to cut through it as if it was butter, to chase it away, and then maybe Jack would come back and there would be yelling and fighting and laughing at Jack's antics-

But it remained.

Aster was the first one to break (because it was always the toughest that wished the most, wished the most that they weren't so harsh), and everyone flinched when he slammed his hands into the meeting desk, standing abruptly and sliding the chair back. "Wha' the 'ell are we doin'? Why aren't we goin' after 'im?" he thrust the question out at each of them, no one meeting his gaze. Tooth bit her lip. "We're not sure if it's Pitch, Bunny...," she trailed off, and shrank in her seat when furious, grass-colored eyes turned to her. "Not sure? NOT SURE? O' course it was Pitch! There were fearlin's and nigh'mares, Tooth! I'd be a fool to say it wasn'! Why, tha' bloody-" "Bunny. Enough."

It was North who had spoken, eyes usually filled with wonder now dimmed with grief. "Pitch was overtaken by his own creations. Ve cannot assume he regained control of them dis fast," he spoke in a low voice as Tooth wiped her eyes. "It had to be someone else, then!" cried Bunny, a hint of desperation sneaking in his voice. "If it's not Pitch, then, tha' annoyin' Eris-"

A golden wisp of sand knocked him back into his chair, silencing him. Bunny looked over to Sandy, but was cut off as images started to form out of the sand in the center of the table.

Sandy ignored the sounds of distress as he crafted Jack's face out of the sand, and continued to make the figure smile at sand-figures of all of them. The four sand-guardians looked sad, and sand-Jack swooped around to make the rest smile. As the image began to dissipate, Aster buried his face into his hands. "Yer... yer righ', Sandy," he choked. "If Jack were 'ere..." "He'd tell us to be happy," finished Tooth with a wistful smile on her face. Sandy sighed silently, gently comforting all of them.

Whatever they were going to do next was interrupted, however, as a mini fairy flew in the room, accompanied by a few others, chattering frantically. "What is it, please, calm down, say it a bit more slowly," ordered Tooth, and the fairies spoke something to her a bit less rapidly. The other three watched as Toothiana's violet eyes grew wide with shock. They had no time to ask her what she had heard as she shot up into the air. Two words escaped her mouth, and they were all as shocked as the other.

"Jack's alive."

* * *

"Some for you, some for you, and oh, a little snow for you too!" Jack was cheerily placing snowflakes in the clouds. Usually he'd make the snowflakes out of the waterdrops in the clouds (how did he know that? Hmm, must have been more memories or something), but flying over the dreadfully uptight town in Britain had been the most boring thing ever. When he heard about how every type of weather was unhelpful from a baker that was having a bad day, well, that had been the last straw.

So here he was, channeling the pure essence of fun into his snowflakes and stuffing the clouds to their brim with them. "There we go," he whispered when one snowflake, two, three, then fifty snowflakes began to fall from one cloud, then another. The winter spirit quickly darted down to the village, watching with a smile on his face as the children of the place began packing snowballs and throwing them at each other.

"OI! STOP IT, YOU LITTLE-" Jack whipped around to find a pudgy, angry adult wiping the remains of a snowball from his face. He knew he had nothing to worry about, though, as soon as he saw the fun spreading over the man's face. "Well," he laughed, "I guess dinner could wait," and with that, he was off, playing with children and even getting more adults involved. Jack was among them all, chuckling and laughing as he saw their antics to get each other with each snowball packed with magic.

Deciding that it was enough for now, he moved up into the air, staff in hand. He pulled up his hoodie with a sense of accomplishment. "Alright, time to go back home," he said to himself, and let the wind carry him.

He was, no need to say, surprised when it set him down at a frozen lake. "What...?" Jack looked around in confusion. "This isn't home. Where is this place?" The wind refused to lift him up any longer, and Jack felt a bit frantic at not being able to fly.

"Jack!"

He stood bolt upright, a feeling of dread suddenly weighing his heart down.

Jack slowly turned around to meet the gazes of the guardians.

* * *

**Oh, my, another cliffhanger? I _am_ a jerk. Ehehe... Whoops.**

**Note: Eris, mentioned by Bunny when he was about to ramble a list of suspects other than Pitch, is the Greek goddess of chaos. I don't know much about her, so I just mentioned her name, and she won't be more than a name in this story (in other words, she won't play a major part or even a minor one).**

**What will happen to Jack? Will the Guardians find his new appearance (since his hoodie is up)? How will Jack react to them? Why am I asking so many questions?**

**All will be revealed in the next installment of...**

**Places, Everyone!**


	4. The Guardians are Back in Business!

**A/N: I. AM NOT. DEAD!**

**Ehehe, yeah. I'm so, so so SO sorry for the hiatus, but it isn't just this story. I had literally been off of the world of creative writing for a very long time because of certain stuff. Some things are still going on and as much as I don't usually vent into my writing I thought writing itself was a form to let steam off. Today was a particularly bad day, which meant that I pulled this chapter out of nowhere.**

**NOTE: Wind is technically a character, and its name for Jack is Snowflake. If you want some background on this, go check out my story A Snowflake in the Wind (don't worry, it's a oneshot so you won't have to read a completely different chapter story in order to get the nickname)!**

**Enjoy, and I swear this won't end in a cliffhanger!**

* * *

The four (five, five, there's _still five_) Guardians stood there in shock as Jack - Jack who was not dead, was never dead, is still _alive_ - stared at them. There was a moment of anxiety, a second where nobody out of the five could believe what was happening. Was this Jack real? Was it just a mirage, created from their hopeful minds and wishful thinking?

"Uh." The sound flew from Jack's lips in shock before he could keep it from getting out.

That one simple sound, however, was enough to convince all of them that this was _not_ an illusion.

"Jack! Oh, sweet tooth, you're back!" cried Tooth, and all of them were suddenly rushing over to hug the teen, who took a startled step back.

"D-don't hurt me, please!" Jack blurted out, stumbling backwards. The Wind, who he thought was his friend until now, pushed him towards the Guardians. "What are you doing?!" he hissed to the breeze, which only earned him another push, this one making him land on his hands and knees in front of the four others. He was about to stand up when he saw a petite hand reach out to him. Jack blinked and sneaked a look up to the owner of the hand, gulping when he saw the face of the Tooth Fairy. He immediately put his face back down and brushed her hand away. "N-no thanks...," he mumbled, standing up shakily. He examined the shocked faces of the quartet in front of him. _Probably assumed I was dead, _he spitefully thought in his mind.

North was the first one to analyze Jack's words. "Jack, vhy vould ve hurt you?" A shuffle of feet was his answer. "Y-you did it before. Why wouldn't you do it again?" Jack shot, on the defensive and fighting the wind current, "And don't bother tricking me. Pitch and Elly told me everything." Aster's eyes widened, understanding a little of what was going on. "Fros'bite, ya gotta listen ta us-" The winter spirit scoffed. "I don't have to do anything," he said, his grip tightening around his staff. "So if you'll excuse me, I'll be taking my leave now." He knew the Wind wasn't going to listen to him, and he knew he had no escape route, but he wasn't going to let these people lie to him.

And as a plan formed in his head, the Sandman floated five inches forward.

That was five inches too much for Jack, and he swung his staff in front of him harshly. Sandy was blown back a bit by the snow flying his way (with no help of the Wind), along with Tooth, and North and Bunny winced as they shielded their eyes from little particles of ice. The Wind flew around its Snowflake frantically, tugging at his arms, legs, hair-

His hood.

With a final gust of air, the hoodie fell back and revealed the winter child's hair and new appearance, shocking the four other Guardians. Oblivious to their expressions, Jack's panicked state grew.

_IneedtogetoutofhereIneedtogetoutofhere,_ he repeated inside his head. Every time he tried to fly off, Wind would first lift him an inch off the ground, and then forcibly drag him down again. As if it was reminding itself something. Frustrated, and in a jolt of panic and adrenaline, Jack did something he had never done before - and would never have had _dreamed_ of doing a few minutes ago.

He _commanded, forced_ the Wind to carry him off.

Forced the Wind, his only friend for three hundred years.

Stunned, Wind could only be dragged along by the teen's staff, carrying him off into the sky and away from the Guardians that tried to follow him. By the time it had recovered from the unexpected action of betrayal, Jack was already in the air in front of the cave where Pitch and Elly were waiting for Jack. The Wind tried to pull him back, but he shook it off and turned around, facing the Wind (and that way, it was clear he was talking to it).

"Look," he began after a long pause. "I... Why would you do that?" The Wind was shocked. What had _it_ done? What had _Snowflake_ been doing? Wind had seen that the Guardians only meant well, and its dear frost child had acted like they were the cruelest people on Earth! The Wind attempted to tug him back, but his feet were planted firmly into the ground. Wind saw him grit his teeth, and eyes darting everywhere as if he was a caged animal. Then he did another thing he had never, ever dared to do;

He threw his staff.

It landed not too far away, him still being shaken from his encounter with the Guardians (_but why was Snowflake scared?_), and the Wind cried out as the connection between both of them were severed. "I don't know what's making you do this, but I'm going to leave that there," Jack said, although the trembling in his voice was evident. "I'm going to leave that there, until you learn your lesson." With that, Jack walked into the darkness of the cave, but he couldn't help but stumble slightly.

Wind curled around the staff helplessly.

This was not going to be good.

* * *

Tooth, surprisingly, was the first one to speak. "What... just happened?" she choked out, fluttering to the ground with a soft _thump_. She felt someone grab her shoulder and turn her around, and she stared at him with a blank look.

Bunny had looked as shocked as any other one of them, but the shell-shocked expression had soon given way to a determined one. "We've got ta stop daydreamin', mates!" he said while looking around at all of them (_minus Jack, _his subconscious provided, to which he replied; _Shut it._) "While we're busy bein' confused, who knows what kind o' lies Pitch is feedin' him?! Y'all saw his face! Somethin's wrong here, an' if we're not goin' ta get ta the bottom of it, nobody is!"

Sandy was the first to snap out of it, closely followed by North. Sandy nodded, floating upwards and sand regaining the jubilant golden glow that had dimmed with sadness. "You are right, Bunny. Ve vill get our Guardian boy back from holding of darkness!" the Russian exclaimed, sabers pointing upwards in energy.

Bunny facepalmed. "It's clutches o' darkness, mate."

"Vatever."

They looked to the female member of the group, who pursed her lips. "Tooth? Are ya' in?" Bunny asked, Sandy and North behind him.

Finally, Tooth looked up, her eyes a shade of deep violet. "If we're going to find Jack, we're going to have to find where Pitch's new lair is, and finding out who this _Elly_ person is would be helpful," she spoke in her rapid-fire way, making everyone smile.

The Guardians were back in business.

* * *

**Aaaand, done! It's surprising what bad days can do to encourage your imagination. So yay! Happy end to a chapter for once! I'll try to post the next chapter whenever I can!**


	5. Helping Wind

**A/N: Am I the only one still fan-girling over RotG? I was really happy to see Rise of the Guardians in the top 20 for the movies section on ! :)**

**I've been begging my sadistic muse to stop myself from going on another hiatus, and hopefully she'll accept my humble sacrifice of free time.**

**Anyway, a bit more into why I can't write as much in the summer (oh wow isn't summer supposed to be free time); I have SHSAT and SAT practice as well as having volunteered to help out at the library. Blame mom for the studying and my school's requirement of service credit (as well as my love of the library, heh).**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"I can't believe it," Toothiana sighed as she slid another book back into one of the numerous gaps in North's library (apparently, Jack had stolen quite the number of books before... all this happened). "There's nothing," she said to the others, who had been waiting for her to finish the last book.

They had been researching and _re_-researching for hours, and the only "Elly" they could find was Aella, the spirit of the spiteful Amazon warrior who had quite the grudge on Heracles. She had been chasing him to get her revenge on him for years non-stop (and everyone, literally _everyone_ knew this) so it was safe to say she wasn't the Elly they were looking for.

Just then, a strong gust of wind blew open the windows-the strongly reinforced windows, made to _repel_ wind!-and a small tornado settled inside the room, scattering scrap paper everywhere. "Ack! Wha' the heck was tha' fer?!" Bunny yelped, a cold blob of snow having landed on his right foot. North rushed over and shut the stained glass window, but to everyone's confusion, the tornado kept going. "What is this?" Tooth asked nervously, her sharp wings fluttering in anticipation.

Sandy, seeming to remember something, snapped his fingers and made a figure of Jack flying above his head. "Yes, ve all know Jack flies, yes?" North chuckled. Sandy rolled his eyes and made a figure of a person lifting Jack up. Tooth narrowed her eyes in thought. "Someone helps Jack fly?" she guessed, and beamed when Sandy nodded. Bunny caught on. "You're talkin' abou' the wind," he said rather than asked, shaking the snow off his foot.

Sandy nodded enthusiastically, and they all turned to the tornado, which had settled down considerably. "Vhat can you tell us, old friend?" North asked, and Wind paused, unsure of how to communicate with them; after all, only Jack seemed to be able to talk to it. Sandy was, again, the solution. He created a mound of dreamsand and put it down on the floor where Wind was.

They watched as Wind, with much effort, slowly made a figure out of the sand. It was sloppy and unpracticed, but was clearly a picture of a snowflake. "You're talking about Jack!" Tooth fluttered hopefully, and her eyes brightened when the sand figure bobbed up and down. The next figure was one of a staff very close to the snowflake. "Jack's staff. Wha' abou' it?" muttered Bunny.

The staff was then flung away from the snowflake, and the snowflake turned away, as if rejecting it. "Jack...has lost his staff?" North guessed, but frowned as the image shook sideways in an attempt to say "no". The image repeated; a staff being _flung away_, as if thrown...

Sandy made a more defined figure of Jack dropping the staff and walking away. "He abandoned it?! That... That can't be right!" Tooth sqeaked, eyes wide. "He'd never do that!" Wind dissolved the sand and made a sad face with it. Then it made a picture of a globe, then marked a point on it with a snowflake. "So you can tell us where he is?" the fairy piped up, smiling widely when the sand signed "yes" again before returning to Sandy.

"Alrigh', now that we got where he is, how are we goin' ta get him ta come with us?", Bunny asked, hopping forward. "In case ya haven' noticed, the kid's a 'fight or flight' type." North chuckled. "Already under control," he said, as two yetis entered the door with a very familiar red sack. "You're kidding me, right? Jack doesn't like being carried around like a caged animal!" Tooth fretted. The Russian scoffed. "Oh please. He likes being shoved in sack. Said so himself!" She was about to point out that Jack had probably been using sarcasm when she felt Wind pushing her impatiently. She yelped in surprise when Wind ushered her outside. "I'll wait for you guys!" she called as she flew out the window.

The others stood silently for about five seconds before North shouted, "To the sleigh!"

Bunny groaned.

* * *

"Pitch?" The Nightmare King looked up from the nightmare he had been shaping from onyx sand. "Jack? What's wrong?" he asked, feigning concern. "I... I ran into the Guardians," Jack mumbled, afraid he would get into trouble. Out of the shadows came (not)Elly, eyes wide. "What? Oh honey, are you alright?" she asked, instantly beginning to check his face for any scratches and checking his limbs to see if any of them were broken. "I- I'm fine," Jack reassured her, "I managed to get away. They were trying to act nice again," he scoffed. His face then turned into worry. "I- um, Elly? Pitch?" Pitch stood up from his seat, kneeling down to Jack's height. "Yes, Jack?"

"Well, today, Wind... it was acting really weird. I was trying to get away and, and it told me that the Guardians wanted to help..." Pitch frowned. "Your friend seems to have been tricked, Jack," he provided, and inwardly smirked when he saw Jack nodding. _Oh, Jack. You're so gullible. _"Tell you what; if it makes you feel better, we could bring the staff inside and keep it safe until Wind apologizes to you," (not)Elly suggested, adopting the look of a caring mother. Jack nodded. "Yeah, that... that would help. A lot. Thanks, Elly." Pitch sighed. "You look tired, Jack. Go rest, and tomorrow you'll be good as new."

As the winter child ambled to his room, Elly-or rather, Death-sighed. "Oh, I wish the Guardians would just leave us alone! Poor Jack," she said to Pitch, well aware that Jack could still hear them. Pitch nodded. "I'll go get the staff," he said, moving to go outside. Death pulled him back down. "You do realize that they're probably coming right now, right?" she asked him, now that Jack was sound asleep. "I do know that. I'm not a moron," he sneered. "Now listen..."

* * *

**Uh-oh! What could they be planning? Leave the guesses in the review section if you want to! (I'm pretty sure no one will guess it though...)**


	6. The Kidnapping of Jack Frost

**A/N: We are back!**

**Anyway, here's a fact from the fact core(Portal 2 reference anyone?);**

**Fact: hanazaki462anime's family shares a computer, and due to previously mentioned problems-which were also the cause of the recent hiatus-the computer has been occupied very frequently by her mother whenever the fanauthor gets an idea. This seems to be a case of very bad timing and some sort of sorcery on her mother's part.**

**So don't blame me when I take too long to write down the ideas ;A;**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"Ignorin' the risk of soundin' childish, North; _are we there yet?!_" Bunny asked exasperatedly, shivering in the cold wind.

They had been following the iridescent dot way in front of them that was Tooth, and, _oh joy_, Pitch's new lair was in _Alaska_.

The ratbag just _knew_ how to get on Bunny's nerves, didn't he?

The sleigh soon caught up to Tooth, who gestured down to a cave hidden by the rock's white surface. "Shh," she hissed, making Aster's ears flatten against his head. "Yes, yes ve are," whispered North, quietly adding "Vhy are bunnies so impatient?" He landed the sleigh as quietly as he could in the nearest clearing they could find. "I heard tha', ya gumby," Bunny shot back, hopping out of the sleigh. He was glad to find solid ground under his feet and not the wooden, unstable (in his opinion) surface of the sleigh. Tooth was already waiting for them, the wind curling around them impatiently. "They're in there," she whispered, pointing to the cave. Sandy noticed the familiar conduit of Jack's power on the floor, a few strides away from the cave, and just a few feet away from where they were standing. _There it is!_ He made an arrow pointing to the staff, and they all moved to retrieve it.

"Where is this place, anyw-?" Aster started to whisper to the others, but cut himself short when _Pitch_, of all people, appeared in the entrance of the cave, making them all hide for cover. The King of Nightmares looked around nervously and snatched the staff from the ground, unknowingly forcing wind to return to the staff and making Tooth (who the wind was inadvertently keeping from getting cold) squeak indignantly. Bunny clapped a paw over her mouth and pulled her down into the bush he was hiding in, but it was too late. Pitch eyed the bush suspiciously and the four held their breath. North and Sandy watched in panic as the raven-haired man made his way to where their fellow Guardians were hiding.

Bunny swallowed. Judging by the sounds of crunching snow his ears were picking up, Pitch was only about ten steps away from them. Sandy watched in trepidation, ready to fight if the situation called for it. Pitch was only seven steps away now... five steps... three... two... one.

Pitch stopped in front of the bush, and reached out to separate the evergreen leaves concealing the two Guardians, when-

"_Pitch!_"

The Nightmare King paused, and called back, "Just a moment!", which was hit back with a "It's _urgent!_ Get_ over here!_" Pitch sighed and withdrew his hand, running his grey fingers through his hair. "I don't get paid enough in life for this," he muttered.

"_I heard that!_"

"Oh, go kick the bucket, will you?!" he yelled, turning around to head back inside. He paused, and looked back at the bush. Then he shrugged and headed in, his retreating figure soon lost to the darkness of the cave.

The four Guardians of Childhood let out a unanimous breath of relief. "That was too close," Bunny breathed as he got back up. "Can you let go of my mouth now?" came the muffled voice of Tooth. "Sorry," she sighed as she fluttered back off a good few inches off the ground. "It was just really cold all of a sudden when Wind-" she gasped. "Oh no! Wind!"

North sighed. "Ve cannot do much about staff, or vind," he said. "Ve must try to at least get Jack." Aster nodded. "He's righ', sheila. The only thing tha' matters righ' now is Jack's wellbein'; we can kick Pitch's butt an' rescue Wind an' the staff later." Tooth sighed. "Alright..," she reluctantly headed over to where Sandy was standing. _I've found another way in,_ Sandy spelled with his sand, in order for them to remain completely quiet. Just when Sandy was about to lead them to the entrance he had found, Tooth gasped. "Guys!" she hissed, "That voice we heard! Don't you recognize it?"

There was a moment of silence, and then they all figured it out at once. "Rimsky Korsakov!" North whispered in shock. Aster scowled.

"Death."

* * *

As they made their way through the dark hallways (assumedly smoothed out by nightmare sand; it didn't even look like a cave in the inside), Sandy lit the walls gradually so the Nightmares would be shooed off without being aware there were intruders in the building. "Where do you think this hallway ends?" Tooth whispered, and frowned as the rest of them shrugged. "Doesn' matter," Bunny whispered back. "Why not?" Tooth asked in confusion. Aster grinned. "'cause the door's righ' here," he said, stopping at one of the doors with frost curling out under it.

North had stayed back, since he had a bit of trouble staying quiet (of course, he denied this vehemently, but they all provided the incident in Jamie's bedroom as proof. He had pouted like a little kid but stayed back nonetheless).

Sandy looked at the other two and they nodded in confirmation.

Tooth knocked on the door.

* * *

Jack awoke to the sound of knocking on his door, and rubbed his eyes sleepily. "Come in," he called. He looked back onto his snow-covered pillow, sighing and brushing off the droplets of frozen tears off the material. Wind's betrayal had been so _sudden_ and it had hurt him more than he would have liked to admit to anyone.

The frost child looked back to the door, but no one entered. "I said come in," he sighed tiredly, running a pale hand through his now-black hair.

The door creaked open a few centimeters in response but did nothing else.

"Hello?" he called out, now worried. "Elly? Pitch?" he rose up from his bed and took a step...

...and didn't even had the time to scream when a tunnel opened up under his feet and he fell.

When he finally tumbled out of the hole, he rolled right into some sort of sack. "Oh, no no no no," he said to himself as he recognized the fabric from what little memory he had. Right on cue, he heard the Easter Bunny's voice.

"Fell down a rabbit hole, did ya, Alice?"

Jack scowled and started punching the arm holding the sack up, but it was too late.

He was already on the sleigh.

* * *

Death was in the small excuse of what Pitch called a kitchen when she received news that Jack was gone from one of her Grim Reapers.

She scoffed. _Honestly, took them long enough. Then again, we did scare them quite a bit, didn't we? If those Guardians thought we were stupid enough not to put guards in Jack's room, then they're a even duller than I thought. _She looked at the table carved out of the cave walls._ Anyway, this isn't even a decent kitchen. I could do so much better at interior designing than Pitch-_

"I'm assuming they're gone already," Pitch drawled as he appeared next to her. "Yes, they are." Death turned to him. "By the way, you call this a kitchen? It's a mess. It looks terrible."

Pitch grimaced. "Please stay on topic. And yes, I do call it a kitchen, as it is where I cook up the rare meal. Food is a luxury for most of us, if you haven't noticed." Death rolled her eyes. "Uh, whose idea was it just now to stay on topic?" Pitch sighed in exasperation. "So, should we follow them now or later?" Death shrugged. "Whenever you want, although the sooner would be better. Great ad-libbing, by the way. You're a natural at acting."

Acting. Yes, you read that right, reader. Every moment of Pitch's almost-discovering-of-Bunny-and-Tooth had been faked, down to the part where Death had yelled at him to get back and tend to 'something urgent'. Of course, there had been no urgency, since it had just been an excuse for Pitch to go back into the shadows of the cave. When Pitch had grabbed the staff, he had trapped the Wind on purpose; of course, breezes would still blow around the world, but now it would be unable to concentrate itself in one place, and was unable to warn the Guardians of anything. Letting them get away with Jack was a part of their plan, according to Death.

The King of Nightmares raised an eyebrow. "Since when do _you_ compliment _me_?" Death sauntered away to the couch formed out of nightmare sand. "I _don't_. It was sarcasm." She lay back and started filing her nails. "Anyway, we'll catch them later at whichever one of their silly little hideouts they've decided to scurry to." "Why?" Pitch asked, still slightly miffed by the kitchen comment. Death hummed. "I'll tell you later."

Pitch frowned. "The deal was that I got to know everything you did, and vice versa," he spat, "I hope you aren't going back on your word." Death rolled her eyes. "You're too uptight, Black," she shot back. "You haven't told me what was in that pill you keep giving Jack. I think it's only fair that I get to keep my own secrets." At Pitch's glare, she sighed. "Fine, I'll tell you the plan on the way there. But first," she muttered, lazily waving a perfectly manicured hand in the air,

"Let's give them a little time to catch up with their dear little Jack, shall we?"

* * *

**Oooohhhhhh SNAP! Bet ya didn't see THAT coming, did ya?**

**See you next chapter!**


	7. Re-Confrontation

**CHEERS! RISE OF THE GUARDIANS IS NOW THE NINTH MOST WRITTEN ABOUT STORY ON WITH 7,068 FANFICTIONS!  
**

**CELEBRATE ALL YOU ROTGers OUT THERE!**

**Here's another chapter! Man, I feel really inspired after the first-ever hiatus I'd ever had o_o**

**NOTE: In case I didn't make it clear enough, Pitch and Elly ALREADY KNOW THE GUARDIANS TOOK JACK. They let them take him. I've added a few sentences here and there to make it clearer, but you don't have to check the last chapter if you don't want to.**

**So I guess it's been enough chapters for me to renew the Disclaimer, haha.**

**I don't own Rise of the Guardians. I do, however, own the conceptual character of Death and her subordinates (Grim Reapers).**

**Anyway, I've got the entire plotline of this story written out, and I broke them up roughly into the length of a chapter. I'm convinced that this is going to be a lot longer than Un-Melting, which is currently (as of 7-blank-2013) my longest and most popular RotG story.**

**Wow.**

**Hope you enjoy this extra-long chapter made just for you, readers.**

* * *

Jack felt the confines of his fabric prison being set down gently and immediately scrambled out of the red sack, looking around and stumbling back when the Guardians stood in front of him. "Ah..," he muttered when he saw that the room had no windows and that the door was behind the four Guardians that stood in front of him.

Aster saw the kid's hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly, held in front of him like he was defending himself. _Not defendin', _he realized. _His hands are so used ta havin' his staff in front o' him like tha'. _And it broke his heart a little, he himself having seeing the defensive position so many times when they had little spats time from time._  
_

It was silent in the room. Looks were being exchanged in place of words, four reassuring and one frightened, and Jack took a deep breath to try and calm his already shot nerves. His purple eyes scanned, analyzing the situation and looking for ways he could get out of the confined room he was trapped in.

North cleared his throat. "Jack-"

Jack bolted.

It took all of them to realize that their youngest member had pushed Tooth into North and was now tearing down the hallway out to the nearest window. "Jack, wait!" called Bunny, racing out to stop him before he did something drastic. Tooth was right at his heels, darting after him in a flash of feathers, as was North and Sandy.

Jack ran blindly, ignoring anything that he crashed into. A corner of a table with a yeti painting toy trains hit his side and sent him spinning, but he stumbled and kept running, pushing past the startled yeti. His breaths came in short gasps, and he desperately wished he hadn't left his staff alone. "Jack!" He heard his name being called with an Australian accent, distracting him enough to make him take a left instead of a right. Jack cursed under his breath as he came to a dead end, a section of it painted a colorful pattern. He turned around, but his way back out was blocked by the rather frightening figure of the Easter Bunny.

Aster put out both hands in front of him, attempting to placate the lost frost child. He knew Jack was scared, and lowered himself closer to the ground to make himself look a bit less intimidating. He almost wished he was back to being a fluffy little rabbit, if it meant that Jack would listen to him. "Jack, calm down," he whispered, only getting a frightened whimper in response.

Jack backed up into the dead end and gasped when his back hit the wall. "Please, l-leave me alone!" he cried, hating the tears that welled up in his eyes. Bunny winced at the sight of them, and carefully moved a step forward. "I'm not gonna hurt ya, kid. Just lemme help ya."

Jack pressed himself tightly into the wall behind him and blinked when his hand hit something metal. His eyes darted down to find that his fingers had found a latch, and that the colorful part of the wall was actually stained glass.

Stained glass.

A latch.

A **window**!

Aster must have noticed this too, because all of a sudden he was inching forward a lot faster than he was moments ago. "Jack,_ wait_." He knew that Jack's logic was broken to say at the least; without his staff, Jack wouldn't able to do anything even if he _did _open that window; it was just the fact that he _might _jump out that frightened Bunny. The frost child didn't listen, eyes darting from his fingers that were fumbling with the latch of his escape route, and darting up to the figure of the Easter Bunny, now joined with three others. Tooth gasped. "Jack, no!"

The latch snapped free, but the window was left unopened as Jack's eyes widened.

His body convulsed, and Jack dropped to the floor like a stone.

* * *

Purple, hazy eyes awoke to figures looming over him, and he subconsciously shrunk into the covers with a whimper._ I'm still at the North Pole, _he realized with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

He flinched as he felt petite fingers brushing back his bangs, but he was too weak to struggle. Jack squeezed his eyes shut, preparing for the worst.

They flew right back open when he felt a wet, warm towel being placed on his forehead. "Huh?" he tried to say, but was then struck with another realization; there was a thermometer in his mouth.

It took another moment for him to put together the fact that these people were _helping _him. But why? Why in the world would _these _people be helping him? "Um, Jack?" a voice said, breaking him out of his wide-eyed trance. His hazy eyes drifted over to the nervous face of the Tooth Fairy. "Um, let me just..," she trailed off, hands hesitantly reaching forward. He flinched but relaxed when she just gently took the thermometer from his mouth. Her face went out of his field of vision, but he could still hear her say "98.3 degrees. That's normal, isn't it?". Was it just his delirious state, or did she sound... worried?

His breathing quickened when a figure on his right shifted and the green eyes of the Easter Bunny appeared. "Nah, the kid's usually colder than an ice block. Normal temperature fer us means trouble fer him." The emerald eyes dropped downwards at him when he realized Jack's breathing. "Whoa, whoa, calm down there, Fros'bite. We're not gonna hurt ya," he tried to placate the teen, who only shrunk back into the mattress.

There were three seconds of silence, and in those three seconds, Jack thought three things.

One, why were the Guardians helping him? If they wanted to kill him, why had they not done so already? Was this their way of trying to make him lower his guard? Why bother to, though, if they already outnumbered him?

Two, were they actually the nice side? Were Pitch and Elly lying to him all this time?

And three...

If this was even true, which it might not have been, how on Earth was he supposed to accept it... just like that? Was everything he knew-which wasn't much in the first place-wrong?

The sound of a clearing throat made him focus back to the situation at hand. North was holding a steaming bowl of soup in front of him and smiled at him. "You cannot eat vhile sitting down, yes?" he asked, and Jack stared for a while. He really, really shouldn't have, but he couldn't help but burst out laughing. As they exchanged confused glances, he choked down his laughter.

"You were just talking about how cold I should have been..." He waited for one of them to catch the hint, and when nobody did, he elaborated. "Uh, how hot is the soup you're holding?"

The four faces in front of him all lightened in realization and he swore he saw four lightbulbs flickering on above their heads.

Or maybe it was just him.

North chuckled sheepishly and turned away with soup bowl in one hand, opening the door with his other. "I vil fix problem in none of the time! I vill be back in a minuet!"

Nobody bothered to correct him on his choice of words.

As the remaining three turned back to him, Jack was suddenly reminded of the fact that, yes, he was still trapped in the bed by his own health, and no, he still found no way out if he even could stand at the least. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that panicking would do him no good, and he should at the least look capable of handling himself. And so he dragged himself into a sitting position, glaring at any of them who tried to help. He was halfway up when his arms gave way and he dropped back into the bed with a _whump!_

There was a sigh. "Ah told ya, ya stubborn mule." Then there was golden sand under him, lifting him up, and eventually setting his back onto the headboard of the bed.

Jack moaned. His limbs hurt, the light brushing of the sheets against his skin felt like burning, and _goddammit _those were _not _tears in his eyes!

There was dabbing at his eyes and he opened them, not sure when they had squeezed shut in pain. The blurred form of some small bird was holding out a tissue to him. He took it warily and wiped at his eyes. "T...thanks," he said, hesitating a bit. He tried his best to relax, but his body was refusing to ignore his roughhousing with tables and yetis painting toy trains.

He looked up and was surprised to find a mini version of the Tooth Fairy floating in front of his face. "Uh. Um, hi," his gaze flickered to the much bigger Tooth Fairy smiling at him and then back to the mini replica, "...Baby Tooth," he finished, smiling at the nickname he had come up with. The Tooth Fairy may have sharp wings, but this little fairy looked so nice, like she wouldn't hurt an ant.

Unbeknownst to him, all of them looked at each other, excited to see some progress of friendliness.

Tooth spoke up. "Um, Jack... I know you don't trust us, but... but just let us tell our side of the story? Please?"

Jack sucked in a huge breath. They could lie to him... but then again, Pitch and Elly were just as likely to lie to him as the Guardians were. And if they were right? Would he be able to handle the world as he knew it crumbling all around him?

Jack closed his eyes, exhaled, and nodded.

And the story came to him, the side of the situation he had never heard before, washing over his mind like a blind eye's first fresh look at the world. She spoke of being a family, and how there was a kid named Jamie and a girl named Sophie who were, even now, waiting for winter to arrive so they could see him. Bunny talked about little spats and stupid arguments, and acting like a brother he never had. Sandy made figures and conjured up stories of their nights up on a cloud of dreamsand, watching the different kinds of dreams being sent out to the children of the world. North, who had entered with a bowl of chilled porridge, had quietly set it down on a small drawer next to the bed and, when it was his turn, told tales of planning White Christmases together, and telling storytimes about his days as a reckless bandit.

When they were finished, the winter spirit's eyes were as wide as saucers, filled with the wonder and hope and dreams that maybe, maybe this wonderfully woven story presented in front of him was true.

There was no _remembering_ it, however, and that was what stung at Tooth's heart. She looked mournfully into purple eyes-that should have been blue-and sighed. "Pitch and Elly stole you away from us so suddenly, that we were... knocked down with grief, I suppose. I guess they hoped they could have kept you as... as their _pet_," she spat, "and never remember us."

Jack's eyes trembled and suddenly sank into fear. Not noticing, Tooth reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind his ears. "You look so different."

The scream that issued from the boy was unexpected to all of them, and Tooth withdrew her hand as if it had been burnt. Jack clutched at his ears and shut his eyes closed tightly.

"Wha's wrong, Jack?" came the worried voice of Bunny, and when there was no response, Sandy reached forward and drew one of his hands away from his ears. Jack sobbed. "Th-that's... that's exactly what Elly said!" he cried, face streaked with tears and hands grasping the sheets as if he was trying to choke someone.

"_How am I supposed to know who to trust if they both say the **exact same thing?!**_"

Tooth gasped. "Oh, don't cry, Jack! Please don't cry..." Jack hiccuped and scrubbed furiously at his eyes. He felt something warm being placed on his hand, now laying limp on the blankets, and looked up to see that North had placed a hand on top of his. "Ve vill get your memories back," he soothed, and something in those blue eyes promised him that he would keep true to his words. Another hand joined North's. The Sandman was smiling assuredly at him, creating a sand figure of five figures, hand in hand. _We'll help you remember that you're part of a family. _Two other hands were placed on top of his other hand, and he looked left to meet sets of green and violet eyes. "I'll do as much as I can, I swear!" Tooth said determinedly, and Aster grinned. "Ah'm goin' ta be real disappointed if ya can't remember the prank wars ya declared on me," he grinned.

Jack gaped at them in stunned silence for a while, and then smiled shakily at them.

Pitch and Elly hadn't looked over his every wound. They had just sent him to bed. They never promised that he would get his memories back. Well, Jack supposed, maybe this group of people could help them. Maybe the two sides weren't saying the exact same thing.

Maybe he could give this family a chance.

* * *

**So you might be wondering why this was such a long chapter. Well... *shuffles feet nervously***

**I'm going away on vacation with my dad for some family bonding time! (so don't spam me, please QAQ) I did the best I could to write this chapter as interestingly as I could and involved a lot of things!**


	8. Memories

**I have returned from (Tartarus) my vacation!**

**It's good to be back (in front of the computer and being a social introvert) home!**

**...**

**I've calculated the amount of chapters this story would take up and the result was something like around 14.**

**Welp.**

**Anyway, bad news. My computer is going to be going to the repair center and the library I relied on times like these is being closed for renovations. So it might be about two weeks until the next chapter is out. QAQ WHYYYYYYY**

**Well, at least that's why I'm making this chapter so long. Slightly over 3k+ words, everyone!**

**WARNING: THERE ARE MENTIONS OF SELF HARM IN THIS CHAPTER. JUST MENTIONS.**

**Anyway, the long-awaited new installment in Places, Everyone!**

* * *

Jack wasn't sure when he had fallen asleep, promises of memories and family still ringing in his ears when he woke up. He looked down and saw that he was in a white, short sleeved shirt, and his hoodie was off to the other side of the room. Jack turned his arm around and blinked, surprised to see lines on his wrist. Where were those from? From their color, it looked like none of them were new. Shrugging it off for the moment, the winter child looked to his right to see the Sandman snoozing next to him. A smile found its way onto his face, and he turned around and placed both his feet on the floor.

He was able to take three steps until his feet suddenly buckled underneath him and he fell to the floor.

Sandy woke up with a jolt, and upon noticing the bed was unoccupied, peered over the side to see Jack sprawled on the wooden boards. "Hey," offered Jack, hand rising up into the air weakly before landing next to his head. The spirit of dreams smiled and held out a hand, and Jack took it after a bit of hesitation. Within seconds he was back on the bed, and he smiled sheepishly before nudging Sandy playfully. "Hey, how come I didn't get good dreams? Not that I had a nightmare," he hastily added after seeing Sandy's panicked expression. "I just thought, you know, since you have dreamsand and everything..."

Sandy's smile turned into a small frown, and he made a figure of a sleeping Jack out of glimmering golden sand. "Okay, that's me," Jack said. "And?" This time a miniature strand of golden sand, clearly representing a dream being sent out to him. Jack watched in fascination as the strand poked at his head, but was denied entry again and again. "Your sand... didn't work?" he asked in shock, and stared as Sandy nodded grimly. He watched as the strand moved away from his sand figure and over to another child that he didn't recognize. This time, the sand clouded over the small figure's head and formed a dream with kittens. "It... works on other people? Why not me?"

Sandy remained silent as always, but this time, his sand didn't have anything to say either.

Jack's gaze dropped to his hands (since when had they been bandaged?) and realized that the tip of his fingers were seeping blood onto the white gauze. "What the-" He looked to Sandy, and noticed that he was pretending to unlock something. _The window, _he realized, and hazily recalled trying to open a rusted, sharp latch. "Oh."

Someone else moved in front of him, and he looked up with curious eyes. Tooth was smiling at him and Bunny and North was at his left, looking at Tooth expectantly. "Guess what, Jack?" Jack tilted his head. "Uh, what?"

In a heartbeat, a finger were in his mouth and tapping at a teeth at the back of his throat. "You know which tooth this is, Jack?" There was a moment in which Tooth processed the fact that he couldn't talk with a finger in his mouth. "Oh, whoops. Sorry!"

Jack closed his mouth and grimaced, raising an eyebrow. "A... molar?" Tooth was overjoyed. "Oh, that's wonderful! You got it right!" Then she coughed and shook her head, looking embarrassed. "Anyway, it's not _just _a molar. It's a baby tooth!" Jack's hand flew to his mouth. "Whoa, whoa. I think I'm about seventeen here. How is this still in my mouth?!" Tooth shrugged. "You were born on 1695, give or take, and I think kids lost teeth later at that time."

Jack did the math.

"Wait, I'm three hundred and seventeen years old? You're kidding, right?"

The other occupants of the room exchanged helpless looks and shrugged. "It's... complicated," Bunny said at last. "Ze point iz, if baby tooth iz still in mouth, memories are still being recorded!" Somewhere in the back of his head, Jack recalled that Tooth collected the teeth to gather children's memories. Not bothering to wonder where that fact had come from, he sat up straighter in his bed. "So I can look at my memories? I can remember?" "Yes!" exclaimed Tooth, and twirled around. She stopped in midair, sinking down to the floor again. North pulled out Jack's teeth canister from his pocket and held it out, Baby Tooth already perched upon it to activate the teeth inside. The frost child reached out as if in a trance. This was it. This was when he figured out where he was supposed to go.

His hands stopped right before touching the surface. Aster frowned. "Wha's wrong?" he asked. Jack took a shuddering breath. "What if I don't like what I see? What if... what if I'm better off now?"

Tooth fluttered forward. "That's your choice to take. We won't force you to remember things."

Jack looked down at the diamonds on the surface of the metal container. He blinked. "Okay," he murmured to no one in particular.

His finger lowered onto the surface.

* * *

_"Hey, Sandy. What kind of dreams did you get to cook up today?" Jack asked the golden man, twirling his staff in his hand. Sandy smiled and drew in one of the strands, cupping the sand in his hands and closing them. When they opened, Jack found himself looking at a figure of a young girl with pigtails playing with a field of beautiful talking flower people. "Wow. Creative," he said the dream darted out into open air to find its target. "So... hey, I was thinking..." Sandy looked up at him with a question mark floating above his head. "Um, I... have a question to ask. Can I, uh, sit down?" Sandy nodded, motioning him to sit down. Jack obliged, staff lying on his lap as he sat, legs crisscrossed. "Sandy," he asked, "you've known the others for a while, right?" The man smiled and gave him a thumbs up. "Right. Of course. Uh, so you know a bit about them. Right?" A nod. "Okay. Okay. And you know me, right? Obviously. And you know I pull a lot of pranks? Especially to kind of annoy people?" Another nod. Jack sighed, fiddling with his thumbs._

_"Do you think they hate me for not being there on Easter?"_

_Sandy turned around so suddenly that Jack almost fell off the golden cloud. He shook his head so violently that he was almost surprised that he didn't see dreamsand flying off Sandy's head. Five figures rose up in front of where he was sitting, and he immediately identified them as the Guardians, including him. The sand figure of Tooth started flying around and checking sand-Jack's teeth on his right, and sand-Bunny was on his left, ruffling sand-Jack's hair like an older brother. Sand-North came up behind them and pulled them all into a hug, no doubt laughing one of his jolly Santa laughs. Then the figure of Sandy was floating over them all, and as the real Jack watched, dreamsand was sprinkled over them and they all fell, snoring on the floor._

_Jack laughed as the figures dissolved, and looked up at Sandy, who held his hand. "I'm guessing you're trying to say they don't hate me," he smiled, and stood up. "Thanks, Sandy. That's just what I needed." Sandy nodded, and saluted. Jack grinned and saluted back. "I'll see you later?" And at Sandy's nod, he flew off to find Jamie and his friends._

_Sandy would never know, but that had been just the thing he had needed to convince himself not to make more lines on his wrist that night._

* * *

_Jack watched, hidden behind a stone egg sentry, as Bunny sighed, having come back from a day of hiding eggs. Easter had just ended. Staff in hand, the teen grinned __mischievously to himself._

_"Race ya, Cottontail!"_

_Jack laughed as he suddenly burst forward, leaving Aster behind. He knew it wouldn't be long until Aster caught up, so he asked Wind to slow the Pooka down a bit, and straightened his body to reduce the air resistance._

_Aster raced after Jack, and grinned as he saw Jack head into a tunnel. Jack grinned right back, knowing that Bunny probably knew the layout of the Warren like the back of his hand, and he happened to know that the tunnel ended up in a clearing with no way out. He also knew that Aster had initially made and saved the place for Guardian meetings, but ever since the amount of children on Earth increased and Pitch grew powerful from the wars and poverty around the world, the clearing had become a sort of storage room, as well as a place where he could practice fighting without having someone intrude. Aster finally caught up to the laughing teen and grabbed his ankle, both of them tumbling out of the tunnel in a tangled ball of limbs. Jack was up and about in a flash, and Bunny shook his head to dispel the dizziness. "Crikey, kid. Wha' the heck was tha' fer-"  
_

_Jack smiled as he heard Aster's breath catch in his throat._

_All over the place, barely hidden, were eggs. Eggs painted an iridescent color, spraying the strictly green environment with dots of rainbow. "Happy Easter," he smiled, popping into the Pooka's line of view. "I thought that it was a bit weird that the Easter Bunny never searched for eggs himself." "How did ya-" Jack cut him off, plucking an egg off of a nearby bush. "They're plastic. I didn't want to waste Easter material," he laughed, handing it to the stunned Easter Bunny. "I know they're not hidden well, but the entire point of this was to admire artwork from someone else." Aster blinked. "You painted all these?"_

_Jack only smiled. "Hey, who draws all the frost on the windows?"_

_He looked up at Bunny, and smiled happily when he was pulled into a hug. "Happy Easter, fros'bite."_

_"Happy Easter to you, too, Aster."_

* * *

_Jack looked at Tooth's hunched over form, exchanging worried glances with Baby Tooth. The mini fairy prodded him forward, and he sighed. "Alright, alright," he whispered, and walked up to Tooth. "Uh, hey Tooth. Happy Halloween," he hesitantly murmured, placing a hand on her shoulder. Tooth seemed to snap out of a trance, turning around at lightning speed. "Oh, Jack! I-I didn't see you there," she said nervously, tucking a feather behind her ear. "Happy Halloween." Jack smiled gently. "Tooth, are you okay?"_

_He watched as Tooth deflated. "No," she admitted. "I mean, I know this is all in the spirit of dressing up and stuff, but... All those frightening outfits scares so many little kids! We're talking **fear** here! We just put him back down! And- and the **candy-**" Jack backed away as she seemed to explode. "Ugh! Do you even **know **how much sugar are in those?! I mean, one or two are okay when you brush your teeth, but kids __are devouring candy like crazy! Like- like they're eating it for a **meal!**" As soon as it had come, the anger rushed out of Tooth and she sank back down to the ground, grumpily organizing teeth. Jack sighed, tightening his grip on the basket he was holding out of view behind him. Baby Tooth squeaked into his ear quietly, hidden in the hood of his hoodie. Jack cleared his throat and held out the basket._

_"I made sure they didn't have any sugar." He smiled as Tooth looked up at him. "What?" she asked, and gasped as she caught view of several cookies peeking out from under the cloth covering the basket. "I used saccharine and stuff. Jamie told me that they were sugar substitutes that didn't, you know, give you caviti-" Tooth squealed and hugged him tightly, and Jack only managed to set the basket safely on the floor before he was swept into the air. "Oh, thank you thank you **thank you!**"_

_From the corner of his vision, he secretly exchanged a wink with Baby Tooth, who smiled and flitted away to join her sisters._

* * *

_"Hey North, do you think ice would stick to-" Jack opened the door to North's office and stopped in his tracks as he caught sight of the man known as Santa Clause hunched over at his work table, apparently scratching away at something small. Curious, Jack quietly walked up behind the man._

_"Akh, radi vsego svyatogo!"*_

_"Whoa!" Jack barely dodged North's arms as they were thrown up in the air in exasperation. The Russian finally noticed Jack and swiveled around on his chair, an apologetic look on his face. "Ah, am sorry, Jack. Vhat is the problem?" Jack scratched his head. "Weeell, I was going to ask you something, but..." He peered at the small ice figurine on North's desk. "It looks like you were working on something. What is it?" North sighed. "Is new model for ballerina toy. Well, **supposed **to be." He gestured to the flawed surface of the model._

_There were small chips missing from the ballerina's face, which looked huge in proportion with the doll. The face was not carved in yet, and Jack was briefly reminded of a game Jamie had told him about called "Slenderman". Shaking the thought away, he observed that there were small slashes on the arm where North had attempted to carve bracelets. He winced and moved on, unconsciously pulling down the sleeves of his hoodie past his hands. The ruffles of the skirt was rather rough, and that the legs had emerged halfway out of the remaining chunk of ice. "Model is too small for details," North supplied. "If model was bigger, yetis vould make a giant doll instead of small ballerina." Jack hummed thoughtfully. __"You could try this," he said, placing a finger on the ballerina's head. Instantly, chunks of ice formed over the chinks, allowing North to re-carve the places he had scratched. The Russian's eyebrows rose in surprise. "That is a very useful trick," he finally told Jack after getting over his amazement. "Ve should have had you here ages ago!" Jack chuckled, and was about to say something when a voice rang out past the opened door of North's office._

_"**FROST!**"_

_North looked at Jack with a raised eyebrow. He merely grinned in reply. "Remember when I started to ask you if ice would stick to something? Eh, I was going to ask if it stuck to rabbit fur."_

_Jack could still hear North's booming laughs as he flew up to the globe where Bunny couldn't reach him._

* * *

So many memories flooded his mind, that Jack momentarily felt dizzy. All of this... He had forgotten all of it, and now it was rushing inside his head, filling themselves where they belonged.

Not all of the memories were pleasant. Glimpses of frozen tears, flashes of sharp metal, the ever-silent moon, the cracking of his wooden staff...

But all of it, which was really, the majority of his memories, were all outweighed by the happy memories, the warmth of being loved, part of a family, and somewhere all the way back, the clear, tinkling laugh of his sister overlapped with the cheerful laughs of Jamie.

Jack Frost took a deep breath, and let the swirling pool of emotion inside him boil down to a simmer.

It was time to go back into the world of consciousness.

* * *

"-ack? Jack, are you okay?"

Jack groaned and blinked. He tried to open his eyes but they were already open, so he closed them and shook his head. When they were opened again, he took in the faces of his worried fellow Guardians.

"Did it work?" Bunny nervously asked, to no one in particular.

Jack let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. Everyone subconsciously leaned towards him, and this time he didn't shrink back. Instead, he smiled, and said;

"I'm back."

* * *

In the globe room, the news of Jack's recovery of memory flew from yeti to elf to yeti. The Workshop was in a cheery mood in a matter of minutes, and yetis who were attempting to find an alternative way to jog his memory went back to building toys with a smile under their fur.

All of this was suddenly lost as the shadow that had been inconspicuously growing below the globe swarmed up to the top, and Pitch walked out of it. His gaze fell on the yetis below him, and his mouth spread into a sneer. Nightmares and fearlings began to climb out of the shadows, all of them waiting for a cue.

Pitch grinned, and said a word none of them would have liked to hear again.

"Boo."

* * *

**BAM! CLIFFHANGER (or something)!**

**_*"Akh, radi vsego svyatogo!"=[Russian] Oh, for heaven's sake! (According to Google Translate)_**

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I got the idea from when I bought gum from the local supermarket; it was mint but then it had three different flavor pockets inside; strawberry, grape and blackberry. This chapter was like like the gum, having four micro stories hidden in it! :D**

**Anyway, see you when my computer is back!**


	9. Relapse

**BAMF! A WILD CHAPTER HAS APPEARED! ****WHAT WILL READER DO?**

**IGNORE**

**READ -**

**...Is how the Pokemon game goes, I think.**

**Ehehehe**

**Anyway! Go read! Reader, I CHOOSE YOU!**

**(I'm kidding, I'm not forcing you to read this. But it would be nice if you could read it. Yeah.)**

* * *

Two yetis barged into the room where the Guardians were all embracing each other in joy. The first yeti pulled North out of the group hug and yelled something urgently in Yetish. He muttered something under his breath and his hands flew to the handles of his sabers. Bunny rose, a serious expression quickly replacing his relieved one. "Wha's the situation?" he asked, centuries of battle training kicking in to prepare for the worst. North's eyes glinted dangerously.

"Pitch."

Tooth gasped, then flew up, feathers bristling in anger. "How dare- how **_dare_** he-" Sandy was quick to place a placating hand on her shoulder, then made a sand whip materialize in his hand. "W-wait! I'll go with you!" Jack hurriedly tried to push himself off the bed. "Ack!" he cried as pain shot through him like lightning, and Sandy pushed him gently down to the bed much to his chagrin.

North smiled down fondly at Jack. "Jack, there is no need to vorry! Ve beat Pitch, you get better, and then ve bring you vith us to kick Boogeyman behind!" Jack frowned. "Yeah, but- I've only just, y'know, come back-" he was cut off as a paw tussled his hair. "Jus' stay 'ere and stop givin' us heart attacks, would ya?" Bunny chuckled, making Jack pout. They all reluctantly moved to the door, a bit hesitant to leave Jack.

Jack smiled. "Don't worry about me, guys. Go kick some Boogeyman butt."

* * *

Four guardians rushed to the Globe Room, where Pitch was idly dodging the things the Yetis were throwing at them. The Nightmare King rose up, rolling his eyes. "_Finally,_" he drawled, forming a scythe in his hand. "I thought you'd never show."

"Whaddya want, ya ratbag?" Bunny growled, boomerangs clenched tightly in his grip. Pitch rolled his eyes exasperatedly. "Haven't we been through this before? If I can't get children to believe in me, I decided the least I could do was make sure they didn't believe in you either." He blinked, as if remembering something. "Oh, and may I have Jack back? He'll be late for dinner." Tooth rose a few feet from where she was, seething with anger. "He's not going _anywhere_," she hissed, "_and neither are you._"

"Empty threats won't get us anywhere, Toothiana," Pitch said, and North had to restrain the infuriated Fairy Queen from flying straight into the Nightmare King (who still had a rather large scythe in his hands).

Pitch smiled, revealing rows of sharp teeth. "You know, Jack is quite the gullible type. If I told him blizzards would make kids happy on Christmas, he'd make one. One probably strong enough to give _ol' Saint Nick_ more than a bit of trouble delivering toys. And, what a shame. North's life appears to depend on delivering toys."

Sandy shuddered, not in fear but in anger and disbelief. _This_ was what Pitch had been planning? To not only pit Jack against his family, but make the winter spirit responsible for their doom? The dream maker stepped forward angrily and cracked his whip against the ground. Pitch only smirked. "We're going to make him unconsciously make him snuff out the belief. Oh, and you know what the best part is? It's that we'll give him his memories after you're all gone! Can you imagine the horror he'd go through?"

North scoffed. "Bah! Your plans go down the drain, Pitch. Jack has his memories now!" To their amazement, Pitch only smiled.

The Russian's belly had a bad feeling about this.

"We erased his memories once. Who's to say we can't do it again?" And at that moment, Bunny sniffed the air and his eyes widened in horror. "NORTH! JACK'S IN DANGER! WE HAVE TO GO BA-"

"Too late." They looked up to where Death had joined Pitch on the globe.

In her hands was - their hearts skipped a beat - Jack's staff.

Pitch grinned. "Ah, Death. How nice of you to join us." He turned to his audience. "Hopefully, you know what this does?" Sandy narrowed his eyes. Images floated in the air - Jack, snowflakes, a glowing staff (_It's what Jack uses to channel his powers._)

Death scoffed. "You really don't know much, do you? This thing here," she twirled the staff in her hands like a baton, "is directly connected to Jack's well-being. Of course, you being the dunce heads you are, I guess I have to explain. If this thing is hurt, so is your precious Jack."

And to the Guardians' horror, one of the Grim Reapers came out behind her, holding Jack. It was a horrifying sight, the young teen struggling to breath in the deathly tight grip of the skeleton's hand. "Guys!" they heard him shout. "Death, she's going to-" he stopped midway, choking. Tooth let out a yelp of fright. "Jack!"

Death gestured to the hooded skeleton. "Don't worry, I didn't have him kill any one of your precious yetis or elves. Anyway, introducing one of my grim reapers! I named him Jim. Say hi, Jim!"

Jim's bones creaked.

A yeti yelled something as he ran past in a hurry, and North cursed. "Anton Arensky! The entrances have been sealed off!" Pitch sniffed. "So we'll be leaving now, trapping you while we take care of the mini-fairies. Just like Death over here so cleverly planned. Isn't that right, 'Elizabeth'?"

Elizabeth _hmm_ed in thought. "Actually, you missed a few things." They watched as Death began to walk on thin air, off the globe and up to the glass ceiling. "One, there's no _we_ about it. _I'm_ leaving. Not you." Pitch's bewildered expression contorted into one of rage. "Two, I don't care about pesky little kids and their belief. It's a bit hard to kill people when they know what I look like, don't you think?" Death turned around and snapped her fingers, making "Jim", as she called him, fly up to where she was, Jack still in his grasp. "And three, you're not going to be my partner," she grinned, and gestured to the struggling form of Jack.

"He is."

"I mean, whoever's heard of being scared to death? That's just an expression. Cold, though..." She turned to the boy who looked at her with fearful purple eyes. "There's pneumonia, influenza, or just simply freezing to death..." Death turned back to the rest of them below her. "Isn't he such a better companion than you, Pitch?" she smirked.

And reaching forward with her sharp nails, she tore a rip in the air. "Ta ta," she taunted as Jack was thrown in the gap in the air, disappearing from their sight.

Then she was gone too.


	10. Capture by the Enemy

**Now, the chapter after this one is the one that might make those few that like Death absolutely _hate_ her...**

**Or, you know, like her even more. Eh. That's okay.**

**Oh, was anything wrong with the last chapter? That was a mobile upload (part of the reason why it took so long) and I'm not sure if anything came out weird in the computer. This too, is a mobile upload.**

**Recently an acquaintance of mine read over this story and said, "Hmm, so where does she (Death) fall in inexplicable, illogical love with Jack?" as a joke (as, of course, he had read the plot of the story already).**

**I have never laughed so harder in my life. Thank you for making my day, Antoni.**

**Of course, Death _won't _fall in inexplicable, illogical love with Jack. She's Death. She's _mean. _She's not going to fall in love with this Winter kid who's just a pawn in her plan.**

**She's _evil. _And she's going to stay that way.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

Pitch was sulking in the cage of dreamsand Sandy had created. "Can you at the least expand it so I can stan-"

Tooth hissed. Pitch shrank.

Regaining her composure, Tooth turned back to the group. "It's no good. Death could be _anywhere_ right now." She fluttered to the globe. North sighed. "Tooth is right. _She _does not care about children's belief. Our globe shows nothing." Bunny hopped forward to his two defeated teammates. "Oi, we can't give up! Not now! Jack could be ou' there, you lot!" he encouraged, but neither of them seemed to find any hope in the situation.

Sandy bit his lip in silent, deep thought. A few minutes later, his face lit up and a golden light bulb formed above his head almost as a reflex. Nobody saw it, of course, and Sandy rolled his eyes.

_It's so hard to be a recognized genius these days._

The Maker of Dreams turned to Pitch, who tried his best to look intimidating while being forced to huddle in the small space of his confines. Sandy made a sand figure of a hooded Death, then a question mark.

_Alright, Pitch, 'fess up. Where is she?_

Pitch scoffed. "As if I'd tell you," he spat, gaining the attention of the other three Guardians in the room. Sandy looked unimpressed and shrank the cage further. The Nightmare King soon found himself unable to move a single limb. "Is this your attempt to abase me, Sanderson?" he sneered, then yelped as he felt his shoulder grow numb. His eyes flicked back to see gold bleeding through his grey skin tone.

He looked back up to see the others looking down at him with smug expressions on their faces.

_Today is not my day, _he thought.

* * *

Death was at her lair - _but ugh, who uses that word these days? Why can't I just say, "Welcome to my **house**" or something and sound equally threatening?_ - with Jack trailing behind her in handcuffs. She sighed as he struggled with them. "How many times have I told you those are magic-proof?" she asked rhetorically, her voice managing to sound innocent, like a young child's._  
_

She didn't see it, but Death could tell Jack was glaring at her. A few moments later, he started to struggle again. _Sigh. __Seriously? _She decided to ignore the annoying clicking of the handcuffs.

As they walked down the hallway to a rather big opening, Jack blinked his eyes as to not be blinded by the glittering chandelier. It was surprisingly bright here, instead of the dark atmosphere he was expecting. There were red carpets on yellow floors and green walls with white elaborate designs glittered down at him. "Wow. A bit... _prettier _than I thought it would be," he said truthfully. Death smiled back at him, and for a second Jack thought that it was genuine. "Well, yeah. Nobody said being evil had to mean _dark _and _gloomy _and _slimy _and" - at that moment the genuine smile disappeared, replaced by one of malice - "**cold.** Oh, whoops. Didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Really." Jack scowled. "You're so self-confident."

"Just like Pitch."

Death turned around, fiery red eyes glinting cold. _Oh, the irony, _Jack thought before he was taken by the throat. He choked as Death held him a few inches off the ground and glared at him. "Look kid, I'm not joking around. I'm not like that so-called "King of Fear." I'm Death. I'm not going to hesitate to kill you just because I need your fear. In fact, you being dead would be wonderful." She dropped Jack, leaving him to gasp and cough for air on the floor. "You don't _have _to tell me how this staff works. I can figure it out in a few thousand years at most."

Jack glared up at her. "I'll break it before you figure out how." He yelped as the Grim Reaper behind him picked him up and forced him on his feet. Jack looked around the hallway they were in and shuddered at the Grim Reapers all lined up on the sides of their path. "Why are these creepy pile of bones following you anyway?"

"His name is Jim," came back the voice, once again light and carefree yet still managing to be twisted and threatening. "And he's not a creepy pile of bones, he's a reanimated dead person." Jack choked in surprise. "_Wh-what?_" Death kept walking past the huge hallway and opened a door into a different hallway. "Uh, I said 'reanimated dead person. You deaf or something?" She picked up an arm of one of the skeletons and held up the hand so Jack could see it clearly. "See these?" she asked, pointing at one of the finger bones. There were runes scratched all over it in painstaking detail, in a language Jack didn't understand. "These things keep them under my control. Of course, the first time they're reanimated they're nothing more than moving flesh and bones, so I usually have to wait until the flesh part rots out."

Jack felt sick.

"Buuut, enough about _them,_ let's talk more about _you._" She brought him through the door to a blank corridor with rooms on either side. No elaborate designs, no glitter. Just white. One of the doors opened with a snap of red-manicured-fingers and Jack yelped as he was thrown inside unceremoniously. "You can either help me learn how to use this, or stay here and rot for all eternity. Your choice."

With a laugh, the door shut and he was left in walls of blinding white.

Jack shuddered. He could feel the staff in her fingers, and it felt like there were giant fingers around him as well, ready to squeeze him to death. It was a terrible feeling, as if someone was able to hurt him without even physically touching him.

* * *

Death laughed as she sauntered to the throne she had stolen a few hundred years ago. She sat down, feeling happier than she had for centuries. "Now to learn how to use this thing," she said, looking down at the wooden staff in her hands. Honestly, it couldn't be that hard, right? When she had stolen May Flowers' bracelet, she had learned that there wasn't really much to it except twirling her hands. Surely this was the same.

She swung the staff.

And she watched, as...

...nothing happened.

Growling, Death lightly tapped the floor with the staff, then stabbed it with the piece of wood. When she realized that nothing was going to happen, she let out a frustrated scream. "This is a piece of _junk_!" she yelled, ruby colored hair in disarray. Sighing, she ran her hand through it and glared at the wretched stick disdainfully. "Apparently I _do_ need the brat's cooperation," she muttered, "but he won't give it to me, that ignorant little-" With another frustrated scream, she threw the staff down, and brought her foot down upon it before it even had the chance to clatter. A hairline crack appeared where the damage had been done.

And what came to her like music to her ears was Jack's pained scream echoing around the dark tunnels.

As she picked the staff up carefully as not to break it completely, the ends of her mouth began to curl upwards. Why hadn't she remembered this earlier?

This was _way_ too easy.

* * *

Sandy looked back from the front of the sleigh, where he was creating a path of golden sand for North to follow. He signed a question mark above his head while beaming a thought to the Nightmare King (who was, indeed, still in a cage) in the back seat where the presents usually were.

_Okay, we're near the mountains. Where now?_

Pitch grumbled. "I'm not your GPS." Tooth swiveled around to face him. "You're right. You don't need constant charging," she said, shooting a look to Bunny. Aster growled. "You do, however, need a bit more threatening." Pitch Black found himself facing the bad end of a boomerang as North looked back at him, his hand finding a grip on one of his swords' handle.

He sighed.

"To the right."

* * *

**So after reading this, my friend Antoni commented a few things.**

**A: "So Death turned to the staff like an unopened Christmas present."**

**Me: "Pretty much, yeah."**

**A: "And when she found out she couldn't use it because she's not Jack she got mad like she found out the present was a pair of socks."**

**I laughed. I won't deny it. I laughed so hard I choked.**

**((Partly because my Christmas present happened to be a bunch of socks last year but that's irrelevant))**

**ANYWAY! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and tune in for the next chapter!**


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